Is it common practice to void warrenty in case of upgrades?

I just talked to Panasonic support, they told me that if I switch the hdd or upgrade the memory it will void the warranty.

Also, how would they know if I put the original components back?

Is this common among all notebook manufacturers or is only Panasonic so strict?

Does that mean I voided my GFs sony's warrenty because I took a peak at the ram modules ?

thanks

 

Yes, its it a common excuse to void your warranty
With all manufacturers

I have owned at least 10 new Toughbooks and they are so reliable that I have never had to send one in for service

If you are concerned on upgrades keep the old parts and swap them back if needed for warranty repairs
I doubt that they will be able to tell that you swapped out the Ram

Alex

 

well bah, I just called the "tech support" guys (there are two of them he says). And they clarified what I had heard earlier for the "pre-sales" chat.

From the tech:
"If the part that you replaced, in this case the hard drive caused the problem then it will not be covered under warranty, however if the failure was unrelated to the part you have switched may it be the HDD or Memory upgrade then warranty support continues as normal"

and then he goes on to explain how they can not promise that my part will work and so on.

Basically it is at my own risk and if I fry the mainboard by putting in an Intel SSD then, well, they won't give me a new TB.

Now my question is, how could a memory upgrade and or hard drive upgrade POSSIBLY cause problems?, those are two very minor and basic operations.

anyways, it looks like I over-reacted a little bit, and the TB tech seemed really nice and willing to help.

Dominik

 

It is possible to screw something up, unrelated to the part that you are upgrading
It usually happens on the older models as upgrades are more common on them
Parts are relatively cheap so its not a big deal
I never worried when I took my brand new cf-30 mk-2 and put a 320GB 7200rpm hard drive in the caddy to replace the stock 80GB
And I purchased a separate caddy and installed a Samsung 32GB ssd drive in it
The standard ram was replaced with 2 new 2GB modules

Alex

 

Okay... There are upgrades... and then there are mods. I would call the hard drive and memory upgrades just that... Upgrades. They should not void your warranty as you are not really opening the case. It will void your hard drive warranty and I suppose... If someone was dumb enough to stick in the wrong RAM without thoroughly checking to make sure it is correct... Well... That person deserves a brick.

However... Anytime you open that bottom plate, to change the wifi card for example... You void everything as you have opened the main case. They can then tell you that you made whatever mistake caused the issue. Will they? I don't know... It depends on whatever sort you have working on your Toughbook. Every Technician does want to get paid... But every warranty department wants to deny... Therein lies the rub.

We are a group of warranty voiders and like to modify outr Toughbooks to make them either better or more personalized.

With that said... Tomcat is right... I've had hundreds of Toughbooks go through my hands and have hundreds in the field that I have modded and built. Aside form some of my early GPS antennas being broken off the CF-28s and/or the EU screwing up software or settings... I have not had one of them crap out. Toughbooks have the lowest failure rate of ANY laptop at (I think) 1.7%... Then next best laptop manufacturer runs at 6. something %... The worst, LEN0V0, runs at close to 15%....

So keep all this in mind.... Then draw straws.

 

You didn't say so, but presumably you're referring to new TB's and not used ones?

That aside, tough warranty requirements are part of liability limitation but also perhaps due to the milspec certification of the fully-rugged TB's.

Craig.

 

I have personally messed up when working on electronics
Usually when I am tired and frustrated, and not watching what I am doing
I take my lumps ,buy a replacement part , feel stupid, and move on to the next project LOL

I had forgotten about forum member Modly’s saying above his avatar


Warranty Voider



Alex

 

Whether it is new or used... If it has a warranty......

EVERY warranty department will look for a way to decline a warranty claim. Every technician is supposed to watch for customer mods/alterations/warranty voiding issues. If they get caught running stuff through that should be denied... They can lose THEIR certification...

Alex... Yes... I have too! I think we all have... If you say you haven't... You're either lying or not "experienced" enough.... (How do you like THAT explanation!? heh heh heh

 

^^ that is 100% how I feel, upgrades should NOT void the warranty. but hey what can we do.

Also to Tomcat the idea of buying an extra caddy, well I dunno what would you do with it? (Swap out, but why?) I was thinking of putting the Panasonic drive in an external enclosure, any rugged once out there?

thanks guys

 

I have an extra caddy for the cf-19 and the cf-30
I like Vista and W7 for internet use
I need xp for software compatability with some older programs

Alex

 

so why not dual boot xp and vista/7 ?

 

Panny and I would go to war if they voided a warranty because the RAM was upgraded. They go so far as too explain how to change it in the owners manual.

 

The bottom line is this... they don't care that you "upgraded" your laptop... what they care about is that YOU did the work. They don't know you from Adam's apphole, and they have no way of knowing if you are qualified to USE the laptop without breaking it (we ALL know at least 3 people who qualify), much less opening it up & poking around in its innards.

If they require that you get the work done by an authorized tech, at least they have some TINY amount of control over whether their (remember, as long as it's under warranty, it's STILL "theirs" as far as the warranty reps are concerned) delicate equipment is opened up by a complete idiot or not.

You say it's just basic maintenance to upgrade a hard drive or add RAM; I agree.

But looking at it from the other side, I can tell you I know personally a DOZEN people who MIGHT try to do it, and are AT LEAST as likely to DESTROY their laptop as complete the upgrade successfully; and at LEAST another dozen who are TOO STUPID TO LIVE, much less be allowed to TOUCH ANY KIND OF COMPUTER, yet still use them EVERY DAY and even TRY TO FIX THEM when their own stupidity is the ONLY THING WRONG in the first place.

Now... knowing this... and not knowing WHICH IDIOT is likely to be on the other end of a Support phone line or a User's Manual... NOW design a warranty policy.

mnem
There's no point in trying to make it foolproof; the fools are just TOO D@MNED INVENTIVE...

 

Hear hear.... Well stated.

(And I agree!)

 

Changing the caddy is the easiest for me

I think Panasonic must have been thinking about my needs when they designed the caddy system

Actually the caddy’s were designed with security in mind, to be able to remove the hard drive for safe keeping

Alex

 

so I all I have to find out now is if switching the CADDY will void warranty as well

(the safekeeping argument got me interested in a second caddy [travel and such])

 

Here is some light reading for anyone thinking of doing a simple ram upgrade
Link


Alex

 

Alex certainly proved Mnem's point! "Can you install ram with a 16oz. hammer or do you need a 22oz. framer?".
You couldn't make this stuff up.
CAP

 

wow

^^^ my above expression was to short to post, but what to say?

 

This is EXACTLY why I don't want Dell users on this forum giving advice...

 

Yeeg...

And now you know why I HATE working HELLDESK... err, Help Desk.

This is the guy who calls five minutes before your shift ends wanting to know what's wrong with his internet connection, when he deleted iexplore.exe cuz someone in a chatroom said it was the source of all computer virus infections... Of course you don't find this out until 45 minutes later, AFTER you've talked his retarded @ss through rebuilding his entire network stack and seen him ping Google by IP address from the command prompt...

mnem
Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed.